13 comments:

Ear plugs, can never have too many, especially if your dpms 308 has a custom break on it. Wow is that loud. I have a buch of those cheapo jobs from wally world but does anyone know where a person can get decent quality ear plugs that are not bright green?Weaver

You've got a compass and protractor. I'd add a map of your general area or your expected bug-out AO. I'd also advocate a little etrex GPS. Everyone says that the civilian GPS sats are going down. They won't. The average grunt needs it as much as you do. Most of them can't use the GPS on a plugger because 1)they're not smart enough, 2)there aren't enough of them to go around, or 3) they're too bulky and not worth it.

I'd also add some comm gear. Using proper brevity codes a simple squad radio is reasonably safe.

Given the quantity and weight, how on earth does a guy carry all that? Presumably there is some sort of support transportation that would handle the heavy stuff/extras, or you're not going anywhere very fast nor are you going very far...

I recently took a winter trip to the Northern Plains/Rockies and took with me much of what are on those lists. Heck, including tools for vehicle repairs, the gear filled up the back seat of the full size pickup and half of the bed to the top of the bed...

My 'suitcase' was a backpack filled with extra wool socks, 1 set clothes, long johns and one+ days E-rations, handgun ammo/mags, maglight and sanitary kit. That was heavy enough just toting to and from sleeping quarters. Add a winter sleeping bag, pad, .30 cal MBR with a few hundred rounds and the load becomes quite a burden especially if it's to be carried without transport...

Sorry bud , but Winter kit my ass . I lived most of my life here , and ill die here . I wont be running off to join the " resistance " , nor will i surrender my guns and rights . I am a " prag " as you call them , and some in the " prag " camp call me a " fudd" because i hunt . I got news for both yall , No one is taking my guns of any flavor , and i dont count on any of you to back me up . If the world goes pear shaped ill stand alone , and honestly i prefer it that way , i lived that way after all . I am not an articulate man so i tend to piss everyone off ... with that being said i agree with neither camp of the 3% issue . Some folk call for a 3 party election , well kiss my butt i want to see a two party election first lol . Now i am an old farmer/cowboy , but i have enough rifles and ammo stored up ( and like the it guys suggest , backup off site ) to get me buy , or make me " rock and roll " . I am not buying anything thro a store today , but yesterday i picked up 3 cheap rifles and now i gotta find some ammo on private sales .

Anonymous said: "Given the quantity and weight, how on earth does a guy carry all that?"

Well for whomever sent this in from our 'stomping grounds' up in the North country, we might add this:

First, foremost, and most unequivocably importantly (redundancy intended!), by being in good shape!! Winter will demonstrate very easily how much work you need to do in that regard!

Secondly, you can move far or fast on foot, but not both, especially in deep snow (12 inches or more). Take into account a sled, snowshoes, and snow shoe poles, and pulling your existence gear behind you. Get to a place where you can execute a base camp set up, and then, "we're in business!".

If it's good enough for mountain, airborne, and other 'light infantry' type units for winter ops, it's good enough for us.

At least, we believe it to be! Every man in his own AO should adapt these kinds of suggestions to what fits his group.....

I'll have to agree somewhat with FarmDad. I don't plan on any cold WX walking ops unless given ZERO choice. Just spent some work time in -10's & -20's and besides low productivity due to gear, it was flat exhausting, no matter what your condition. (I'm in good shape.) Seems to me cold WX ops carries mega risks and lowers overall chance for survival, much less op success.

Naw, I'll be holing up at my 'ranch', (as many in my AO plan on) and doing my current work thing as long as I'm able. No, I won't be voluntarily giving up any firearms.

There comes a time when a stand has to be made... Some of us will fall, some of us will survive. If we don't take a stand, what's left of the Republic will surely vanish.

As they teach us in the Corps, the first mission of USMC leadership is mission accomplishment. The secondary mission of USMC leadership is troop welfare.

You might feel better holed up at your house; hell, I know I would. But I'd give all of what I've saved up at my house in a second to take off with just an e-tool if that's what would increase my chance of mission accomplishment.

You might feel better about drawing a hard line but you do the mission a disservice.

For me, that's the restoration of the republic by any means necessary.

In regards to the GPS device being added to the list - I would only ask this: How many more battery spares do you want to carry? - or -What guarantee do you have to keep the thing charged? GPS units can/will fail, and unless you don't know how to use a compass, you can be SOL. To my knowledge magnetic interference could be the only problem encountered with a compass in the field - seasoned hunter up in my neck of the woods found that out personally. Thats my take on it. ~ Fawkes

Actually, you can carry a lot of the mentioned supplies in this list, you have to be innovative.

Hint: bandoliers and belt pouches. There are many more uses for these things than just ammo and mags. You can keep small, loose essentials such as pocket knives, compasses, etc... in pouches that can be carried on bandoliers.

There is a trick that both the Confederate Soldier and the Chinese Soldier of World War II used. That is by using your bedding as one large backpack. That is, whatever you are using, sleeping bag, poncho, blanket, etc... you can roll up larger essentials such as your MREs and MRE heaters, first aid kits, into your bed-gear and wear the rolled up bed-gear across your back. Keep your rifle, ammo and sidearms handy, of course, always in an available and easy-to-reach place.

The above applies if you are on a long-distance march. What if there is a skirmish in a nearby area, or you don't have to travel a long ways. It will be best if you travel light. Only carry your weapons/essentials, and keep the rest of the stuff in a cache location, like the one you see in the chapter "Predator" of "Absolved".

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.